Where is the Rocket?

by Harriet Ziefert
, illustrated by Barroux

Overview

A little orange rocket with one little passenger inside takes off across the pages of this fulsomely unique book, exploring spatial relationships, opposites, and words related to distance, placement, and comparison.

See the rocket soar up to the left and down to the right. "What's on your left? What's on your right?" asks the text. Watch the rocket fly over the head and under the snout of a grinning alligator and across a spinning planet in the middle of the book.

"Where to next?" Turn the page, turn the page!

A voyage of imagination, as well as a clever expression of language arts, Where Is the Rocket? invites readers along for a soaring ride.

The celebrated creative team of author Harriet Ziefert and artist Barroux has been lauded for their "hand in glove," "complementary" duet of prose and pictures in such books as My Dog Thinks I'm a Genius, Bunny's Lessons, and It's Time to Say Goodnight.

Editorial Review

Kirkus Reviews

A mobile inspires a child’s dream of flying in a rocket.

Vibrant cover art depicts a child peering through a round window. The same child is then shown tucked into bed beneath a mobile with stars, planets and a rocket with round windows; attentive readers will recognize this decoration from front endpapers. Ensuing pages show the child traveling through space in the rocket and eventually zipping around an earthly environment, too. Meanwhile, Ziefert’s text invites speculation by posing questions like “Where are we going?” and “Are we there yet?” This participatory approach is heightened when pictures use the book’s physicality to elucidate text—for example, “up…and on the left” is accompanied by a picture of the rocket moving upward. The text then employs direct address to ask, “What’s on your left?” Ultimately, dreamscapes recede to reiterate the image of the child in bed and the rocket dangling from the mobile. A concluding page of text resounds, “HERE!” heralding the return and then shifts to a closing interrogative stance, inviting readers to respond to questions like “What’s to your right? What’s to your left?” There’s an inverted echo of Goodnight Moon here, with the text resisting naming things in its realm and instead asking child readers to name things in theirs.

An appealing goodnight book, though all those questions might suggest an earlier bedtime in order to accommodate them all.

About The Author/Artist

Harriet Ziefert lives in South Orange, New Jersey. You can learn more about her at www.blueapplebooks.com

Barroux sometimes comes to New Jersey to work with Ms. Ziefert. Most of the time he lives in Paris, France. Visit his website at: www.barroux.info